Bailo Lok -- outside what? Isabel de Santa Rita Vas
The Chinese use an intriguing curse: " May you live in interesting times!" A curse, yes -- the implication being that times of trouble and upheaval are the interesting ones, when the storms of life slap you black and blue, and perhaps widen your eyes. The Chinese ought to know, their close acquaintance with excruciatingly interesting times makes for dramatic history. As a theatre aficionado and a writer for the stage, I find myself crazily envying the interesting times that created a Gabriel Garcia Marquez or a Toni Morrison or an Athol Fugard. Does Goa need the ferment of cursed times, of social confusion and collapse so that vital themes will weave themselves into great literature? If so, are the rumbles we hear underground, the divisive and fragmenting 'speak-bitterness' we find gaining credence, a sign of interesting times underfoot? Perhaps. Hopefully not. Perhaps we can recognize the moment of possibility in the heart of the present moment and give it creative purchase. Perhaps. No moment comes with any guarantees. Only possiblitities. Cursed times in Carnival Goa? Sun, sand, blah-blah-blah. Nah? Goa's synonymous with peace or at least apathy. Listen again. Yesterday the cyclist was knocked down by a 'non-Goan' motor-cyclist speeding down the Chicalim road. Last week a group of people marched into the premises of two shack owners by the beach and demanded they shut shop. On being told that the proprietors had the necessary licences to run the restaurants, the locals were incensed -- outsiders should be booted out, they claimed. The gang-rape by migrants is a blot on our image. Beware of migrants. The government spokesman declared that the commercial sex-workers were outsiders from Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka and ought to be the responsibility of those States. The children of the traders on the beaches of Goa are said to be vulnerable to foreign paedophiles. These outsiders are a bit of a nuisance, why don't they go elsewhere? Blacken the face of that high-handed official, he is promoting his own cronies, and he is and outsider, what cheek! Environmentalist, that man? But he is an outsider! Bailo Lok amkam kiteak zai? Let's take out a morcha, Goans first, outsiders last. Let's pass a law outlawing outsiders, Goa for insiders. Exclusively. Well, provided no Goans apply. You outsiders?! Still an undertone. Still hesitant. But the hysteria in the chorus of voices is unmistakable. And to my mind, enormously scary. 'Reasonable' arguments are propounded to prove the point: it is an economy of scarcity, we need to look after our own, don't we? Of course -- the arguments of all fascists and fundamentalists and sanitizers of society have always had a following, what argument is absolutely devoid of 'reason'? Over six million Jews were not exterminated single-handedly by Hitler, but by believers in his hysterical 'reasoning'. Paranoia often wears ornate 'civilized' masks. The keystone to assess it might be to ask---is it an unifying idea or a fragmenting one? Does it consider a wide human perspective or does it draw chalk circles that shut in and out and alienate? When Goa joined the Indian Union the 'frontiers' Goans had to negotiate to travel to Belgaum or Bombay or Calcutta in search of employment were erased. Free movement was a relief and brought a sense of home-coming. Also, in the recesses of the mind, some anxiety. Are we going to be swamped by the 'outside'? Anxiety is not always wholly logical. We have migrated for centuries in search of educational opportunities, of employment, of wider horizons. The compulsions of social reality have turned out to be long term blessings. The world becomes our playground, we find it easy to be at home almost anywhere. More, our remittances home bolster the economy in obvious ways. More, we contribute with concrete skills to the lands of adoption, even as the tug of the homeland endures. Here is the formation of rich social capital. This has been our reality, our past, our present, most certainly is to be our future. But we are not unique. Migration and cross-country movement is after all part of world history. Goa, some claim today, is 'the best' State in India. What has made it so? The beaches and the moderate weather, haven't they been around for some considerable time now? Perhaps some of the infrastructural facilities oil the wheels of the welcome. I am mindful of the thousands of masons, carpenters, plumbers, teachers, doctors, businesspersons, administrators and planners from 'outside' Goa who have contributed enormously to strengthen the edifice of this economy and society. In what sense can I see them as outsiders? Only in the same sense that a tight-lipped Brit spits in the face of a dark-skinned passer-by on the sidewalk in London with a venomous "Paki, go home!" Best State? Perhaps it is the legendary hospitality of Goans that has been at the heart of its charm? If so, where is the room for a patronizing 'outsider' mentality? The 'outsider' syndrome is not exclusive to us Goans, mercifully that's not a distinction we can claim. The Neo-Nazis are abroad, so are all kinds of minority-bashers world-wide. But do we wish to claim such a kinship? Or are we more self-aware and history-aware? Do we reflect that cultural openness and assimilation are part of the evolutionary process and that a fury to root it out has always had terrifying consequences? For outsiders AND insiders? Capacity building seems like a more creative option. Without antagonism or anxious competitiveness, capacity building not only makes sense in planning for the future, but it is hugely exciting and freeing. It seems to me that inclusion and glorying in difference has been the sign of all enlightened minds, whereas the obsessive erecting of fences signals an insecure psyche. Goans have fashioned creative and peaceful modes of existence for ages. That is the core of being 'sosegado' -- not apathy, or laziness. Wouldn't it be hilarious if our raised standards of living in the twenty first century were to make us grasping or intolerant? Vigilance and a lucid attention to our many-faceted realities are of the essence. But of equal essence is a mentality of abundance. Our resources, scarce? OK, if you say so. But that scarce? Is our human ingenuity and creativity scarce too?! How many frenetic chalk circles do we need to draw to remain firmly 'insiders'? And keep the outsiders out---outside what? Interesting times? -------------------------------------------------------- The writer has mentored a generation at Dhempe College, is actively involved with English-language theatre in Goa, and other activities. She can be contacted via email isabvas at sancharnet.in ########################################################################## # Send submissions for Goanet to [EMAIL PROTECTED] # # PLEASE remember to stay on-topic (related to Goa), and avoid top-posts # # More details on Goanet at http://joingoanet.shorturl.com/ # # Please keep your discussion/tone polite, to reflect respect to others # ##########################################################################